Russia Lands the Lucky Punch
From the beginning England showed a balanced positioning , good insurance defense and good counterpressing. There were also effective (and attractive) Individual actions mainly by Alli . Added to this was Rooney, who fits better and better into his role as a play-maker. All this resulted in good chances ( 6./13./21./23./31./34 . Minute).
EM 2016 Analysis
The Other Side of the Story – Russia’s Defensive Shortcomings
England eliminates Russia’s Left Side Effectively
Had Russia the ball the structure of England focused (very successful) on taking away the left side of Russia. With the pass of the right central defender (Ignashevich) to the left (Berezutskiy) ran Lallana from outside and forced Russia to continue the play on the right side (By the way: Actually a fairly simple mechanism to transfer – but worked against a very limited Russian defense). This had two advantages. First, the left wing (Kokorin) was taken out of game, on the other hand the higher position of Lallana provided an additional passing option in the counterattack. On the ball side England had Sterling who immediately after the ball is won can create deep passing options with his speed and quickness. And even if these tactics were rarely useful, it was still a logical approach. Against opponents that show more quality on the ball this will probably not enough (Russia played two crosses direct off the pitch – without any pressure).
Russia Takes More Risk and Lands the Lucky Punch
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